Dan Cammish scored a lights-to-flag victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Oulton Park, managing enough of an advantage over Toyota’s Josh Cook to claim his first win of the season.
Cammish, who earned pole position with victory in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying race, was never headed during the 16-lap sprint, although the NAPA Racing UK driver was only ever around a second ahead of his chasing rivals.
At the start, Cammish made a good launch to fend off Cook into the first corner, as behind him Ash Sutton tried to take Cook for second.
Cook and Sutton made contact at Cascades as they went side-by-side, which sent the latter into a slide that dropped him to seventh and allowed Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram to slide into third.
A lap later, Sutton reclaimed one position by making a late dive inside Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble for sixth at Old Hall Corner, before the race was briefly neutralised for a lap to clear up debris left on the run to Lodge corner when NAPA’s Lewis Selby was turned around in contact with Dexter Patterson and hit the barriers.
After the resumption of racing on lap five, Sutton tried to make further progress by going around the outside of Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan at the chicane, but slight contact resulted in Sutton cutting across the grass and he fell behind Power Maxed’s Aiden Moffat and Doble.
At the front, Cook lacked the power to get close to Cammish, despite having more TOCA Turbo Boost [TTB] than the leader, and had to settle for second, as Cammish scored the 17th win of his BTCC career.
Ingram completed the podium in third, crucially reducing his points deficit to Sutton by six points, with the margin now at 52 points.
Laser Tools Racing’s Árón Taylor Smith was fourth after a relatively quiet race which saw the Toyota driver only move up when Sutton had his early-race moment.
Power Maxed duo Moffat and Doble held on to fifth and sixth respectively, whilst Sutton had to settle for seventh.
Team VERTU’s Tom Chilton overtook Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley for eighth four laps from the end, with Smiley and WSR’s Daryl De Leon completing the top ten.
Plato Racing’s Morgan had been running in fifth before an engine sensor issue on the run to Lodge corner required him to pit into retirement.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:55 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus Titanium | 16 | 23:42.703 | 1:24.583 | 1 | |
| 2 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | Speedworks Corolla Racing | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 0.715 | 1:24.776 | 2 | |
| 3 | 80 | M | Tom INGRAM | Team VERTU | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 1.173 | 1:24.977 | 4 | |
| 4 | 50 | I | Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 6.631 | 1:25.056 | 5 | |
| 5 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi A3 Saloon | 16 | 10.687 | 1:25.222 | 9 | |
| 6 | 88 | I | Mikey DOBLE | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi A3 Saloon | 16 | 12.012 | 1:25.019 | 6 | |
| 7 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus Titanium | 16 | 12.195 | 1:25.261 | 3 | |
| 8 | 3 | M | Tom CHILTON | Team VERTU | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 12.460 | 1:25.475 | 11 | |
| 9 | 22 | I | Chris SMILEY | Restart Racing | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 13.907 | 1:25.326 | 10 | |
| 10 | 2 | I | Daryl DE LEON | WSR | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 13.916 | 1:25.471 | 15 | |
| 11 | 17 | I | Dexter PATTERSON | Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing | Audi A3 Saloon | 16 | 16.068 | 1:25.176 | 8 | |
| 12 | 52 | I | Gordon SHEDDEN | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 16.542 | 1:25.433 | 20 | |
| 13 | 77 | M | Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus Titanium | 16 | 16.883 | 1:25.774 | 18 | |
| 14 | 11 | M | Ricky COLLARD | Team VERTU | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 20.855 | 1:26.108 | 12 | |
| 15 | 99 | I | Charles RAINFORD | WSR | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 21.796 | 1:26.104 | 13 | |
| 16 | 32 | M | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Cataclean Plato Racing | Mercedes A35 Saloon | 16 | 23.808 | 1:26.366 | 16 | |
| 17 | 132 | I | James DORLIN | Restart Racing | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 29.172 | 1:26.526 | 17 | |
| 18 | 19 | M | Max BUXTON | Speedworks Corolla Racing | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 29.831 | 1:26.071 | 21 | |
| 19 | 28 | M | Nicolas HAMILTON | Team VERTU | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 38.722 | 1:26.648 | 19 | |
| R | 33 | M | Adam MORGAN | Cataclean Plato Racing | Mercedes A35 Saloon | 9 | DNF | 1:24.906 | 7 | |
| R | 15 | M | Lewis SELBY | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus Titanium | 4 | DNF | 1:38.779 | 14 |
